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Legendary West Texas historian dies
On this day in 1995, legendary West Texas historian J. Evetts Haley died
in Midland. Haley, born in Belton in 1901, graduated from West Texas
Normal College at Canyon in 1925 and subsequently received a master's
degree in history from the University of Texas, where he studied under
Eugene C. Barker. His book The XIT Ranch of Texas and the Early Days
of the Llano Estacado (1929) established him as a premier
interpreter of the western range cattle industry. The book was also the
subject of libel suits totaling $2.2 million, and set the tone for an
often controversial career. Haley's books, including Charles
Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman (1936), won critical acclaim, but
his conservative political views and outspoken nature often landed him
in hot water. He lost his job at UT shortly after becoming chairman of
the anti-Roosevelt Jeffersonian Democrats of Texas in 1936. In the early
1940s he sided with the university's board of regents in their notorious
dispute with UT president Homer Rainey. In 1956 Haley ran unsuccessfully
for governor on a platform that endorsed segregation and opposed labor
unions. His book A Texan Looks at Lyndon, issued during the 1964
presidential campaign, was also controversial. Haley's library and
personal papers became the cornerstone of the Nita Stewart Haley
Memorial Library, which opened in 1976 in Midland.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- HALEY, JAMES EVETTS, SR.
- XIT RANCH
- GOODNIGHT, CHARLES
- JEFFERSONIAN DEMOCRATS
- PANHANDLE-PLAINS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
- NITA STEWART HALEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY
- LITERATURE
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Governor imposes martial law on Freestone County (1871)
- Houston Direct Navigation Company chartered (1866)
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